It was a strange way to start a day-after-Christmas party in a Cincinnati suburb.

Two steps through the back door and into the kitchen, I was surprised to see the hostess shoot
out of her seat and bear down on me like a heat-seeking missile.

"Hi, Bob," she said. Before I could return the greeting, her simple hello became the tail of a
run-on sentence.

"OK, so we've got to know, there's a report out of Chicago that Jim Tressel is going to resign
after the Sugar Bowl. Do you think it's true?"

My holiday-muddled mind tried to process the sentence, attempted to sort through the words and
find the "Merry Christmas" greeting that should have been in there, and failed. But I understand
the alarm this kind of junk raises among Buckeyes fans, particularly those who believe the current
Ohio State football coach is the second coming of Woody Hayes.

This could be a major crisis. Christmas parties are nice, but it's difficult to eat nacho chips
and buffalo-chicken dip in the middle of a major earthquake.

"No, I can't imagine there is any truth to that. I mean, why would ... "

She didn't wait for me to finish the sentence.

"Well, I thought, 'Why would someone know that in Chicago first?' I mean, how would he know? I
think a blogger reported it and ..."

Now it was my turn to cut her off. I explained that while there are some sharp, responsible
bloggers out there who know their stuff, there are also some who will report just about anything
and hope it turns out to be true so they can say they had it first. Unfortunately, once somebody -
anybody - puts something like that out there, it runs through the Internet message boards like a
bullet train and can even reach a family gathering in suburban Cincinnati, where OSU football
usually takes the back seat to basketball arguments over UC and Xavier.

From my side, the real intrigue was over why anybody would believe this, at least based on the
information we have now.

In the world of NCAA investigations, the recent infractions by six Ohio State football players
were relatively minor. For any coach to voluntarily resign in this kind of situation would be
unusual, but it would be totally uncharacteristic of Tressel.

Even his harshest critics would probably admit he's not the type of guy to willingly leave his
players in the middle of a crisis. While many of Tressel's answers to reporters seem like the work
of an expensive PR firm, he has always seemed sincere about that "family" stuff he preaches about
his players. He believes his responsibilities extend beyond football, seems to genuinely believe he
can reach those wayward souls.

But even cynics who believe his "family" lines are just more marketing from an image-conscious
guy would concede that Tressel is aware of his place in Ohio State football history and wouldn't
willingly jeopardize his own legacy. He isn't going to voluntarily leave in the midst of a story
caused by NCAA infractions. He wants to go out on top.

So why does
anybody believe this stuff?

Maybe because there were rumors at the beginning of the season that Tressel might retire if Ohio
State won the national title, which is a far different situation than the current one. And then
there's also the possibility that there is more to this "scandal" than meets the eye, that there is
some kind of heinous Watergate-style coverup looming and Tress was being forced to resign.

Athletic director Gene Smith has come out loud and clear in his denials of that scenario, but on
that point, history is even more vociferous:

College administrators tend to be much more sensitive to a coach's transgressions when he is
losing, and Tressel's teams have won or shared six consecutive Big Ten championships and beaten
Michigan nine out of 10 times.

Unless Tressel has done something really, really bad - think felony - it is unlikely anyone at
Ohio State is going to pressure him into resigning anytime soon.

The No.1 issue at OSU is winning. Even a blogger in Chicago should know that.